Monday, November 08, 2004

RIAA has claimed, for years now, that p2p networks and other online "pirate" channels are killing the music industry and causing the majority of the decline of music sales for the past few years.

The Economist article linked references an internal study conducted by one of the major record labels. The article goes on to say:

According to an internal study done by one of the majors, between two-thirds and three-quarters of the drop in sales in America had nothing to do with internet piracy. No-one knows how much weight to assign to each of the other explanations: rising physical CD piracy, shrinking retail space, competition from other media, and the quality of the music itself.

The article also suggests most of the problem is due to the overall lack of quality and creativity in today's music, and the major publishers' focus on producing mega-hits instead of creating long-lasting careers for their artists. There appears to be some support to this theory from the major music publishers themsevels, as the article demonstrates.